Sima Yi and the Fall of Han
by aspamitres
Summary: 10-year-olds!everyone. Sima Yi's misfortunate adventures at a Hogwarts-like school. Awkward situations, disturbing classmates, namely Zhuge Liang, time-travelling and an unknown disease that paralyzes students. Could that be a warning? Is the world they have known destined to fall?..
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This story was previously posted on Wandex System, my old acc, three years ago. Now I'm bringing it back to life. Revised grammar, slightly altered plot. Enjoy!_

* * *

**Chapter 1.**

**Starting school.**

Sima Yi knew he would be sent to such a school some day, since all his brothers had been sent there, and he wasn't really surprised to find himself on the way to the seemingly Hogwarts-inspired school building. He had of course seen pictures of the school before, and it did look like a castle. Not the worst option, for sure, but Yi was a bit fed up with all the brothers' school experience stories already, so he wasn't excited or anything, unlike most of the other kids on the train. Most of them were discussing which faculty they would most likely be sorted to, and he didn't feel like joining the discussion. His father was Wei, all his brothers were Wei, everyone he knew was or had been Wei, with the only exception for his mom, who was, well, _illiterate_. And deceased. Sima Yi sighed, realizing he didn't have much of a choice.

If he were to choose, he'd most definitely be Shu. The Shuists were considered the friendliest and the most talented by far, not to mention the most popular. Besides, green and gold was the prettiest color combination for a banner one could think of, while blue and silver were, well, sort of boring, though quite noble.

Sima Yi sat beside Ma Chao and Zhao Yun, who were later joined by another boy in a green shirt ("_possible Shuist_," Yi thought.) and a red-haired girl.

He didn't feel like talking to anybody, since the long way he had made from He Nei to the Chang'an train station wore him out, but he knew he had to make a nice impression.

"Hey."

"Oh hi!" the girl smiled. "Wait, you're from He Nei too, right? I guess I've seen you before."

"At the He Nei cross-school festival," he suggested, "I'm Sima Yi."

"Yue Ying."

She clearly intended to sit near him and continue the conversation, but was stopped by the green-shirted boy's jealous glare.

"What, do you seriously want to share a seat with a Weion?.." he looked at Sima Yi in a somewhat condescending manner, which literally pissed the latter off.

"How in the world do you know whether I'm a Weion or not. We haven't even _arrived_ yet."

"Look at your robes. Did you get them straight from your grandma or what? I mean, seriously. Have-nots don't go to Shu." he smirked.

Sima Yi's ears felt hot all of a sudden. So what if his parents - parent, actually, - couldn't afford to buy new clothes. What's so wrong with borrowing stuff from elder brothers? Is that really a thing of importance at a school which provides students with a school uniform? His remark was absolutely pointless, though offensive.

"I thought Shu was all about friendliness, justice and benevolence." he tried to handle the anger that started building up inside him.

"Am I not just?" the boy raised his eyebrows in fake astonishment. "I treat bad people the way they have to be treated. That is, badly."

Sima Yi stood up angrily.

"Oh come on. How do you know I'm bad? What have I done?!"

"You're a Sima. They're no good. Your father went to jail for planning a revolt, and your mother meanwhile..."

"Stop it, Zhuge Liang!" Yue Ying pulled him by the sleeve. "It really is _enough_!"

Sima Yi stared at him in amazement. Did this boy just call his mom a slut all out of the blue?..

The boy kept grinning.

"You're an imbecile, Zhuge." Yi hardly managed not to slap him, because that would lead to some serious shit if Zhuge Liang turned out to be some important official's kid.

Sima Yi didn't want to stay with them any longer, so he just left. Okay, fine, he just made an enemy. So predictable. Being a Sima sucks. He sighed. Now he had to find another place to sit.

He ended up spending the rest of the time with a thin boy, or, more probably, a girl in a pink scarf, a sly kid who tried to steal something from him and some other girls he didn't really care about. At least they weren't snobbish. Sima Yi pressed his cheek against the cold glass of the window and blankly stared at the fields and rivers the train was passing by. So much for the "_nice impression_".

* * *

Unsurprisingly, Sima Yi was sorted to Wei, and Zhuge Liang together with Ma Chao, Zhao Yun and a whole bunch of other smiling ten-year-olds became Shuists. "_Good luck and farewell_," Sima Yi thought. There was no way for him to ever become friends with them.

He had hoped so much for Yue Ying to be Wei, since she managed to tell him both of her parents were Weions while Zhuge wasn't around. However, he didn't catch luck here either, and to Shu she went.

Cao Angxing, the head of the Wei faculty, a rather arrogant long-haired young man, rolled his eyes as the whole Shu table clapped their hands to welcome the newcomers. The Weions let out a few faint claps as Sima Yi, the sly kid, three girls and some other guys he had never seen before approached the blue table. Nice try.

Yi picked at some food on a silver plate standing before him as he listened to the introductory speech. What he managed to find out was that they were supposed to do nothing ("get used to the school," headmaster Huang Zhong said) for two days to later start studying various pretty weird subjects, such as Taoism, Confucianism, History of Han and Defence against the Dark Arts, which was a subject just about as useful as _Ethical Issues of Political Eunuchism_, which was a Sunday elective.

Sima Yi also received a whole cardboard box of semi-ancient yellow-paged books he didn't even bother to unpack. Why read textbooks if the year hasn't even started? He decided to explore the school territory instead.

The Wei dorm was huge and not cozy at all. Like, _at all_. Sima Yi pushed the book box under his bed and quickly changed his own purple-ish robe to the standard Wei uniform so that he wouldn't stand out too much, and wrapped the signature Wei black-and-blue striped scarf around his neck. Okay, fine. Now he should have felt like a member of the school society or something. But he felt nothing. There were a few other boys in the dorm, but they didn't converse or anything, so he just left to see more of the school until the sun went down.

He pushed the heavy brass-studded door that led outside and found himself on the school yard. It was enormous. Despite it was September, grass was green, and the flowers on the huge peach trees all around the garden were blooming. This was probably maintained by some sort of Taoist magic, although Sima Yi personally considered it a waste to use magic for such purposes.

"If flowers bloom all the time, it would be totally wrong to celebrate Christmas like that." a first-year Otherist said confidently. "Christmas is all about fluffy snow, and coldness, and, you know, presents."

Sima Yi turned around to see whom the boy was addressing, but he didn't see anyone.

"Why do you tell me that? I'm not even your faculty." he shrugged. Otherists were said to be snobbish, and they usually came from well-to-do families. They weren't _exactly_ Sima Yi's circle, as it turned out.

"Uh..." the boy hesitated, "I just thought, like, the lessons haven't started yet and..."

The boy was of a rather small stature, and the Otherist grey-and-yellow striped scarf was tied over his head instead of his neck.

"It's ok. I was just wondering. I have nothing to do either," Sima Yi sighed. He was actually lonely, not just bored. But do people really tell that to random boys in the garden?..

"I don't even know why I was sorted to Other."

He didn't resemble an Otherist. Like, at all.

"Which faculty do you like then?"

"I like Shu," the boy smiled. "They're friendly, and cool, and kind... And stuff."

"Oh well." Sima Yi rolled his eyes. Yeah, sure. Sure. "Everybody likes Shu. It's so overrated. I actually wanted to be Shu too, but they made me Wei. And from my experience, the _benevolence_ myth is bullshit. Shu is no good."

"Oh."

You can't really answer much to that. Sima Yi felt like the conversation was going nowhere.

"Um, well, I'm Sima Yi. You?"

"Zhang Jiao." the Otherist smiled. He always smiled in a sort of weird manner, a bit crazy maybe.

"See you on the lessons then... I guess."

"Sure."

Since Jiao didn't intend to leave, Sima Yi just turned around and went back inside.

_Awkward._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

**The only choice.**

Sima Yi spent some time unpacking things, although he didn't have too much compared to the other students in his dorm. The suspicious kid from the train had a whole _suitcase_ of stuff.

He also visited the school library, which was just about as cold and grey as the rest of the school, however, the choice of books was really great. Yi picked a book called "_Journey to the West_", about Sun Wukong the monkey king and his adventures, and Buddhist monks, and magic and all sorts of wonderful things. He had already read it twice or thrice, but it was pleasant and comforting to recognize familiar characters and events in such a foreign and rather unfriendly environment.

Sima Yi got so carried away with the book he barely managed to make it in time for supper. He rushed into the hall just before Cao Angxing came in.

"S-sima Yi!" he hissed, "I hope you will do your best not to be late next time."

"Yes, sir." the boy nodded, looking at the grey tiles on the floor not to meet the head of Wei's watery blue glare.

But Cao Angxing had other things to do apart from scolding a first-year late for supper. He waved his hand and food appeared on the tables. It was rather plain, rice and fried chicken, but the way it had come to be surprised most, if not all, of the first-years.

"Watch out, he's the Chemistry teacher after all!" a Wuist boy giggled, covering his mouth with a long black sleeve of the robe.

"Woah, will you teach us to do that?" a short-haired Weion girl asked the teacher, "Like, make all this food appear out of nowhere?"

"Ask your Taoism teacher, that's his responsibility," Cao Angxing sounded annoyed. He always sounded annoyed. "Would you please be so kind as to shut up? All of you!"

The girl shrugged her shoulders and started eating. The Wei table received a few pitiful stares and a couple of giggles from the other faculties. Their teachers were not like that at all. Sima Yi sighed. Nothing new here either.

Yi had eaten nothing apart from a bit of the Sorting Ceremony salad since the very morning, so he was pretty hungry by now. He was consuming his rice so quickly that some boy asked if the food would disappear if they didn't manage to eat it on time.

"No idea." the short-haired girl answered instead of Sima Yi. "But that would be _so-o-o_ Cao Angxing."

Yi stopped eating and turned to look at the Chemistry teacher. He stood in the corner nearby, arms crossed on his chest, and he was biting his thin lips nervously. Liu Yongye, the History of Han teacher and the head of Shu, stood beside him.

"...I hope such incidences will not occur again, but if something similar happens, I suppose the school will have to be closed," Angxing said in his usual annoyed manner.

"I guess the school itself is relatively safe though. After all, we have encountered this two hundred years ago, and..."

"Have _you_ lived two hundred years ago, Mr. Liu? Times change, so do humans. Moreover, Han itself is nearing its end..."

Liu Yongye frowned.

"What on Earth are you saying. Han is going to last forever and a day!"

"Ha. Leave the loyalty to the court outside of the school walls, Mr. Liu. Han is over, we can all see it rotting. This is yet another sign."

"Mr. Weion, the only thing to be left outside of the school walls is... is your revolutionary thinking!" Liu Yongye answered angrily.

"Afraid to lose the job?" Cao laughed. "Who needs History of Han when..."

They suddenly realized they were talking too loudly. Since they were standing between the Wei and the Shu tables, not many students could hear them from such a distance. Only two, in fact. Sima Yi and...

He turned around and saw two curious green eyes staring at him closely.

"Who is that boy?" Cao Angxing asked quietly.

"Zhuge Liang."

"Make sure he doesn't tell anyone," the Chemistry teacher warned quickly, "Silence and silence only. We need no stupid first years..."

Sima Yi wasn't listening anymore. He left the rest of his food on the plate and slipped quietly out of the hall.

He ran past the long grey corridors decorated by a few dull landscape pictures, then went down the windy stairway, and knocked at the navy blue door.

"Rising Phoenix," he panted.

This was the password needed to enter the dorm. Some more Taoist magic wasted on trifles.

He jumped onto his bed and hid his face in the pillow. This was just too much for a single day. First Zhuge Liang, then sorting, and now this.

He wanted to fall asleep, just elapse into emptiness and rest.

"Something is threatening the school. Something we're not supposed to know about. They don't evacuate us or anything, which literally means danger lurks somewhere nearby and," he kept going back to the teachers' conversation, "And we are to wait for it to come. Silently. What could it be?.."

Suddenly he felt somebody's hand touch his shoulder.

"Don't take it too seriously, Sima Yi." Cao Angxing said, piercing the first-year with his steely glare.

"T-take what seriously? What are you talking about, sir?.." Zhongda lied, staring right into the Chemist's cold eyes.

"Lying helps sometimes." the chief Weion smirked in a sinister way. "I highly recommend you to keep lying to everybody else. Make sure nobody knows of our little chat with Mr. Liu."

"I'm not lying, sir." Sima Yi felt something wet on his upper lip. No. Not that again. He pressed the black sleeve against his nose to prevent the blood from pouring all over the sheets.

"Whatever you call it." Angxing smiled coldly, handing him a tissue. "Good night, Sima Yi."

"Good night, sir." Yi took the tissue and replaced the sleeve with it.

The head of Wei crossed his arms on his chest and left quickly, before the other students came back.

Deep inside Sima Yi felt he wouldn't manage living on with this knowledge and doing nothing.

He got to the sink and washed his face with cold water to halt the blood flow. The sleeve, however, was ruined. Right before the school year. _Oh well._

It was reckless to tell any of the teachers, since they either wouldn't believe or would somehow punish Cao Angxing, which would lead to severe problems. It was just as stupid to tell any of the kids. He promised not to. Besides, he didn't know anyone but Zhang Jiao whom he didn't trust much.

He couldn't tell anybody. Anybody but...

Sima Yi wiped his face with the clean sleeve since there was no towel.

He hated to admit it, but this was the only choice.

"_Zhuge Liang._"


End file.
